Etymology

stepparent

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Today it means: One's parent's spouse who is not one's biological parent. Full definition →

English parent ← Middle English step- ← Old English stēop-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)tew-
  2. Proto-Germanic*steupa-
  3. Proto-West Germanic*steupa-
  4. Old Englishstēop-
  5. Middle Englishstep-
  6. Englishstep-
  7. Englishparent
  8. English todaystepparent

From step- + parent.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.